Competing demands:

There are
increasing demands on a finite supply of clean water for agriculture,
industrial and municipal uses, to sustain natural environments, provide
recreation,generate
electricity and disperse wastes.

Many of these
uses are incompatible.

The best laid plans of mice and men

Man modifies
local hyrdology but only rarely affects the global or
continental hydrologic environment:

Examples of
global effects may include global warming and proposed water management
schemes: NAWAPA and Russian schemes.

These would
move water from the arctic

to temperate and sub-tropical areas.

NAWAPA:

North American Water & Power Alliance: Idea move Canadian surplus water to South-west U.S. & Mexico.

Regional scale projects:

Some water
resource management projects have altered the whole water balance of regions by
inter-basin transfers.

Water is
transferred from Colorado to Mississippi,
From Great lakes to Mississippi
and from all over CA. to LA.

The Great Man-made River in Libya.

Regional Use of Water.

Water use in
highest per capita in Idaho, Wyoming
and Montana
(Higher % of farmers).

Total water
use highest in California.

Surface Water use highest in California,
and Texas.

Groundwater
use highest in Kansas,Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Level of Water Resources Development:

Varies from region to region.California, Arizona and Nevada
have most development.

In New England only 6% of water is consumed.

In California 42% consumed.

In ColoradoRiver Basin of Southwest 98% or more
consumed.

Dams

There are
three main types of dams:

1. Arch
Dams, 2. Embankment (gravity) dams, & 3. Buttress
Dams

Dams can be
made of: Reinforced concrete,earth-fill (Clay/rock), Masonry (rare).

Most dams
hold water for irrigation, power generation, flood control or recreation.

Building dams
can be an answer, but not always. Is water flowing into ocean wasted? If all
water in a basin is used adding a dam reduces available supply: example: Lake
Mead & Powell.

Examples: Las Vegas. NV. Saudi Arabia.

Development of surface water:

Can bring electricity, irrigation water and recreation to arid lands.

But overuse of
this resource causes:

Increasing salinity of
water.

Loss of fisheries and habitat.

Loss of power production and navigation.

Examples: Colorado River.

II. Water Resources Economics &
Politics.

The
Golden Rules:

RULE I:

-He who has
the gold makes the rules

RULE II:

- Water flows up hill toward money

Water Economics:

Low, Low Cost

Subsidized
development

Common
property resource

Subject to
externalities

Lack of
incentives for conservation

Common property resource

Water is often
a resource held in common but owned by no one user. Therefore if one
user doesnt take his or her share other users will.

Therefore, not
using as much water as possible as early as possible is not rewarded. In fact
water law may penalize someone who fails to use the water even if they do not
need it.

Also there is
little incentive to conserve water or use it wisely.

Subject to externalities:

An externality
is an action that causes impacts that affect other people besides the person
that took the action.

Examples: air
pollution, loud parties.

If a company
or city dumps pollution into a stream or dries up the water in a creek or overdrafts
a groundwater aquifer it will likely affect other people (as well as the
natural environment).

Controlling externalities:

Many of the
costs of water pollution or waste are felt by other people besides the ones
causing the problem and therefore other sanctions like fines or rules
are need to promote reasonability.

Low, Low Cost

Water is not
dirt cheap, it is far cheaper than dirt.

For municipal
customers the costs can range from a high of 10 cents per gallon to typical
costs of 1 cent per gallon to a hundredth of a cent per gallon.

Down on the farm

Agricultural
customers for water pay from a high .03 cents per gallon (or 2851 gallons per
dollar) to a typical cost of 10,000 gallons per dollar to low costs of 100,000
gallons per dollar or less. At 100,000 gallons per dollar almost a million
pounds of water will be delivered to a farmers fields
for a payment of a dollar to the irrigation district.

Why so cheap?

Water is so
inexpensive because it is fairly abundant and it is relatively easy to handle. It
is however very expensive to pump uphill. Also water development projects
usually are massive and therefore are beyond the ability of a single town or
farmer to afford.

Pork Barrel Projects:

Many very
questionable projects have been built in the U.S. using tax monies. So now by
law all water projects must show that benefits exceed costs.

However, it is
easy to make assumptions that can justify any project.

End of the Age of Big Water Projects?

1960 saw the
greatest surge of water projects but Federal Deficits and a shortage of good
projects as well as growing environmentalism has
slowed development to a crawl.

A future
crisis may trigger renewed development particularly from areas like Canada with
abundant water.

Water
Politics

Small
well informed wealthy special interests vs. greater good of the country?

Water
appropriations are very popular with members of congress from both parties.

Push
conservation and conversion, even removal of existing dams.

T Boone Pickins and Mesa Water.

A
Global Business

Enron
invests in French and British water utilities.

Towing
icebergs to the Persian gulf.

Will Minnesota be the richest
state in the future?

Role of Government:

As a result subsidized
development has been the rule around the world.

This usually
takes the form of multi-purpose projects which claim to provide water
for agriculture, industry and municipal uses, flood control and generation of
hydroelectric power and recreational opportunities.

Role
of Federal Agencies

U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers: Dams in east, flood control navigation, wetlands.

U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation: 17 western states, water and power supply dams,
aqueducts.

Environmental
Protection agency: water quality.

Fish and
Wildlife service: Endangered species some fisheries.

State
water development agencies, state fish and game agencies. Less money
but enforce most laws and water rights.

III. Lec.
34. Water Law.

The
Golden Rules:

RULE I:

-He who has
the gold makes the rules

RULE II:

- Water flows up hill toward money

Water Law:

Public versus
private ownership

Riparian Water
rights

Appropriative
water rights

Groundwater
rights

Other water
rights

Public versus private ownership:

In many places
water was owned by the city, the state or by the King: Arab lands, Rome, Spain
and Mexico.

This made
sense in arid areas: fights were avoided and water shared and developed (Kanats, aqueducts built).

In contrast,
in England and northern Europe there was plenty of water so water became a
private property right like a house or an agricultural field.

Riparian Water rights.

The English
concept of ownership of water in a stream depended on ownership of the land
through which the stream flowed.

Since stream
often formed property boundaries ownership of the stream bank on one side was
all that was required to use water in the stream for any use.

Rip what?

Since the area
adjacent to a stream is called the riparian area this type of right to use
water was and is called a riparian water right.

Riparian Doctrine in
the U.S.

When settlers
came to the original 13 colonies there was plenty of water, so the English set
of laws (called a doctrine) of riparian water rights was adopted.

This type of
law worked well throughout the well watered east. Particularly
before modern engineering allowed the construction of large dams.

To this day
the riparian doctrine holds in many states.

Where Riparian Doctrine holds:

All states
east of the Mississippi River use it except Florida,
Iowa and Mississippi.

Limitations:
one must own land adjacent tostream from which water is taken and that the right is requires
sharing with other users not an entitlement to a fixed amount. Hence in drought
all users may have to cut back.

Also in some
states water may not be removed from the watershed in which it originated.

Advantages & Disadvantages:

Good: It has
the advantage of being simple to enforce and reflecting the value of water in
the price of land.

Bad: It does
not foster cooperation in developing water resources or moving water from areas
of abundance to areas of scarcity where its value may be higher.

Therefore only works well in uniformly well-watered areas.

Appropriative water rights.

When the arid
west was settled, people initially used riparian doctrine. This worked until
large scale development of mining required water.

Miners
diverted streams with aqueducts (flumes) to move water to pay dirt. Most land
was public, no one wanted to buy it merely move water
over it.

However,
miners with various claims might all want to use water from the same stream.

Solution Appropriative doctrine:

Thus conflicts
arose. Such as the StarrCountyWyoming range war of 1870.

State
legislatures in the west invented a new doctrine first used in California and Colorado
called prior appropriation.

Prior Appropriation:

In
appropriation, the first person to build a dam or diversion structure on a
stream was entitled to take (or appropriate) as much water as he wanted and
there no requirement to own the land where the dam and/or aqueduct was located.

Limitations:

The appropriative doctrine requires that the appropriator actually take and use the water and the use has
to be of some benefit to him. If the appropriators ever fails
to use the water or uses less of it, then they may be limited or may actually
lose their right in the future.

There's propriation
in them thar hills:

States that
use the appropriative doctrine include Texas
and every other state west of the Mississippi
except California and Washington.

Its my water, cause of my great great
grand-pappy back in 1849

In the
appropriative system a user could totally dry up a stream. So there are limits
set.

If there is
not enough water to provide for the water rights of every appropriator, then
the date when the first appropriator took water out for the first time (back in
49) will be used to determine the priority of water rights

This senior
or prior appropriator will get all the water he wants, then the next most senior appropriator will and so on.

Who calls the shots:

A state agency
determines how much water can be taken based on the typical flow in the stream
and needs of other users. Often this organization is called the State
Engineers Office. In Texas it is the Texas Water Rights
Board.

Example: South Platte River.

Other Water Rights Systems:

California,
Washington, have both appropriative and riparian water
rights systems in some cases and locations. This inconsistency makes lost of
work for Lawyers.

Why do these
two states have two systems??

Florida, Iowa and Mississippi
require State permits for all water rights.

Also, some
states recognize that cities have a stronger right than agriculture.

Indian & Pueblo Water rights:

Pueblo Rights: In New Mexico and California existing rights of
Mexican towns (pueblos) under 1846 treaty have been transferred to the cities
of today (For example right of LA to water of the LA river and groundwater
basin).

Other legal technicalities:

Federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act takes precedence over state law.

Some states
allow sale of contracts for water, but most actually require ownership of land
or construction of a dam or aqueduct and use of the diverted water to establish
ownership.Now such Wheeling is a very hot topic.

Examples: Robertson County, Texas,
Parachute Colorado.

Limitations on Water Rights.

Endangered
Species Act. Prohibits harm to a listed species.

Over 450
listed species.

Many are
aquatic or riparian.

Public Trust Doctrine:

Iowa,
California and Colorado; the State may prohibit projects that require state
permits, if project would wipe out in-stream flows needed for fish and
wildlife.

Example:
Diversion of streams feeding MonoLake.

Reclamation Law:

Federally
chartered irrigation districts get water sufficient for their needs.

Only cost they
pay is for operation and maintenance and paying off construction loans at 0%
interest over 50 years.

Groundwater rights:

Since judges
and legislatures did not understand the behavior of groundwater, groundwater
law is really complex and weird in many states.

The three
doctrines that are common are: Absolute Ownership, Reasonable Use, and
State Issued Permit.

Absolute ownership

All the water that can be pumped out from any number of wells on your
land.

Texas is one of the very few states that has
this approach.

Others are West Virginia, Rhode Island,
New Hampshire, and Louisiana.

Why these
states?

Reasonable use:

Take as much as you can use without wasting
the water. California, Washington, Tennessee

South Carolina
and Ohio and Missouri use this approach.

Part of
reasonable use doctrine is correlative rights: that is take as much as you can use without wasting it and without
hurting other neighboring users of the same groundwater aquifer. If you hurt
them they can sue you.

State permit systems:

Get a permit from the State Engineer based on safe
yield of aquifer and reasonable use and future estimates of demand.

Most other
States Including Oklahoma, New
Mexico, Colorado, Arkansas, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida
use this method.

Special Case:

Utah is somewhat unique in that most water was divided up
by the Mormon (LDS) Church prior to statehood in 1890.

So water
rights law suites are rare.

Interstate Rights &
Conflicts.

All water laws
(except inter-state compacts) in the US are made by state legislatures.

What happens
when a river flows through several states?

If the states
can agree a compact (an agreement) dividing up the water that has the
force of law is negotiated. Usually the U.S. Congress passes the compact as
a federal law and the Federal courts interpret disputes.

A compact list of compacts:

Examples of
Rivers with compacts: Red, Sabine, Rio
Grande, Colorado.
This can still cause problems:

Example: Colorado
River compact and ArizonaVs.
California.

International disputes:

There is no
real means short of war or treaties based on horse-trading of resolving
international water disputes.

Examples of
disputes: DanubeRiver
Dam, RhineRiver Pollution.

U.S.Mexico
Disputes: Colorado River, Alamo river and Rio Grande.

Biggest future
headache: the Middle East.

IV. Droughts.

What is a drought?

A Flood can be
clearly defined by reference of water level in a river, called the stage. Flood
stage is a measure of stage above the banks.

In contrast, a
drought is less quantified.A definition
could be:

Definition:

A prolonged period of below average precipitation.

Specific
definitions for given river basins exist: average flow for months of Jan-June
at point x on Sacramento River is less than
75% of average for all recorded flows.

How dry is dry:

Regional &
Climatic Factors and water management methods can influence occurrence of
droughts.

Examples: California, is drought prone and susceptible to prolonged
droughts Nevada,
is less susceptible since so arid. West Texas, is more
drought prone but may be less susceptible to impacts than Central Texas or East Texas.

2 months of
low precipitation in England
or east coast can cause emergency.

Historic Droughts:

West 1870's Rain
follows the plow Not!

Dust bowl 1930's.

Sahel1970's-1980's.

California: 1870's, 1901-05, 51-57, 85-91.

Texas 52-57 (the time in never rained)

Massachusetts, summer 1993.

Texas, South-west1995-1996, 1999-2000.

Impacts of droughts:

Crop failure.

Grazing problems.

City water supplies.

Loss of stream flow & decline in quality.

Wildlife impacts.

Erosion of soils (dust storms).

Salinization & Drainage problems:

Avoid salinazation with drains.

Tile drains or
extra water causesproblems: Example: Kesterton.

Irrigation
strips nutrients and toxic compounds from soil so water conservation helps to
preserve soil & reduce water pollution.

Case I: Or How I Survived the Great California Drought:

SouthCoast area
of California
1985-1992:

Statistics:
Precipitation: average 19 inches rainfall/yr, up to 45 in. in watershed of LakeCachuma.

Engineering Responses I:

Grey water
project $8 million to pipe treated sewage water to golf course, problem that
TDS level is high tends to kill grass, requires extra water to wash accumulate
salts from soil also conservation increases the solids content of sewage making
plant operations very difficult.1987-1991,

Engineering Responses II:

Desalination
plant 1992. Designed to yield 10,000 acre feet per year
capital cost of $30 million operating costs of $10 million. Compare with
Cachuma water sold to city for $33 per acre foot.

Only operated for 2 months since costs high quality low and reservoirs
full when brought on line.

Only in California?

Crack-pot
solutions: Icebergs, super-water tankers.

Pave it and
paint it green: Some lawns spray painted.

Some
developers waste water to change zoning.

Millionaires
fight billionaires over water usage or King Simon vs. the little people

Lawyers have a
busy time or you are taking more than your 17/256th share, so we sue.

Indirect
effects:

Drought
devastated wildlife.

By June 28
1992 drought had set stage for worst wildfire in Santa
Barbara History (the PaintedCave Fire)

Case II: Drying up MonoLake
1940-1982.

Large Salinelake in closed basin east of Yosemite.

High Altitude. Had
fish in Ice age and as recently as 1860's, but lake levels have fallen several
hundred feet since then.

Has brine shrimp and brine flies. Huge sea gull population and other
migrating water fowl.

Successful law suit due to release of trout into RushCreek
in 1982.

Now lake level is recovering, diversions reduced by
50%.

Saving
Mono-lake:

Save Mono
lake campaign with committee bumper stickers etc.

Forest service
protects watershed as a natural area

Law suit
forces LADWP to cut diversions by 50%. Due to reestablishment
of interpretation of Calif.
Fish and Game Act.

Case III:Texas
Droughts 1996, 1998-2002

Edgewood, Texas 1996.

History.Small town (1,500) entirely dependent on small municipal reservoir
with 500 acre foot capacity. No wells due to salinity of water. SRA
warns city of peril as early as 1970's, reservoir very low in mid 80's.

Affecting
mostly Southern & Western Texas.

Flow in Rio Grande greatly
reduced (does not reach sea)

Rains in July
help central, far South Texas.

Drought responses.

Texas Drought begun in winter 1995
lasts until Aug 1996, total deficit in rainfall about 12 inches out of 24.Reservoir dry by late July.
TWDB spends $25 million of state funds to build emergency pipeline to LakeTawokani

Impacts. Water rationingbegun June,
Tanker trucks needed in July as quality deteriorates.

Same thing
happened in Throckmorton, Texas in 2000.

Farmers in Webb,
Hildago Counties cut off in 2002.

Lessons?

Santa Barbarahad warnings
of water shortage by USGS in 1892, built Gibraltar reservoir 1922, by 1950's
running low, built Cachuma 1957's.

Inaction is not a solution.

Edgewood
(Throckmorton, less so) avoided building neededpipeline due to weak, incompetent
local government. Wanted growth, but did not want to burden taxpayers
with related costs. Prayed for rain but made no conservation efforts. Last
minute pipeline, State paid more than for a permanent one, not built at last.

How many other
Edgewoods are there?

Drought control methods:

Rainmakers.

Cloud seeding.

Conjunctive water management.

Multiple sources.

Conservation.

Wastewater/ greywater reuse.

Desalinization.

Are Droughts becoming more common?

Probably, yes.
Vulnerability certainly is.

Darwin:The jungles came before man, the deserts after

Climate change.

Desertification.

Increasing
urban and agricultural water demand not matched by supply.

V. Floods!

Floods through history:

Most
civilizations have traditions of great floods.

Noah, Legend
of Gilgamish

This is
because most early civilizations were located on flood plains. The IndusValley,
Mesopotamia and Yellow River (Chinese)
civilizations were very flood prone. The Egyptian
civilization less so.

Why?

From the Epic of Gilgamesh Circa 2500 B.C.

Once the
Gods destroyed Shuruppah in a great flood six days
and nights a south storm swept the land On the seventh day the city was gone 

Why I like floods

Floods have a
mixed ecological impact.

Existence of
rich soils is usually associated with flooding in past.

Floods that
are not channelized inundate swamps and create
beaches & backwaters where fish spawn.

Example: Grand Canyon.

Most animals
can adapt to floods.

Structural flood control measures
include:

Levees & Channelization.

Dredging.

Debris
basins & Retention basins

Dams & Weirs.

Gabions & Rip-rap.

Sills & Terraces.

Non-structural solutions:

Controls on land use.

Changes in disaster and flood insurance.

Contour
plowing and conservation tillage.

Promotion of riparian vegetation.

Creation of wetlands and backwaters.

Creation of green-belts/floodway parks.

But pressure
for human use grows:

Example: LA
River Freeway.

Flood Parameters:

Design of
flood control structures depends on estimation of rain-fall/run-off
relationships,response time of basins and recurrence interval of storms events
exceeding a given size.

For entire
basins it is complex since these parameters must be used along with estimates
of spring (or other seasonal) run-off. Also hydrographs for various flows and
inputs from various parts of the system must be included.

Example: TRA
& LakeLivingston.

Flood Prediction:

Rainfall
gages.

Snow course
surveys.

Radar.

Rainfall-run-off models.

Hydraulic Models.

GIS.

You aint seen nuthin yet

Are floods
worsening?

Given only
50-100 years of data it is hard to say, but it appears that frequency of peak
flows exceeding a given level is becoming more common.

Especially,
the decade of the 1990's has seen many record breaking floods.

Use network
models and spatial optimization

Allocate
water among competing users.

Groundwater management & modeling.

Establish a model of an aquifer (using modflow)

Determineimpact of pumping on water levels in aquifer
over many years and simulate various scenarios such as artificial recharge or
reduced agricultural pumping..

Examples:

Las Vegas
Water District Infrastructure management

Southern
Nevada Water Authority Cooperative Water Project

Other
examples:

Big DarbyCreek
Watershed Study

Central
Valley of California
Water Resources Decision Support System.

AlbuquerqueNM
groundwater study.

Computer
Models

Surface
water models: HEC, CAS2D, WMS

Groundwater
flow models: MODFLOW and others.

Contaminant
Transport models: MOC, MT3D & others.

VII. ROLE OF WATER IN ECOSYSTEMS:

Waters Role in the Environment.

Water plays a
key role is sustaining all organisms. But human activities can drastically
affect rivers and lakes.

Water provides habitats.

Some impacts
of human use and development are beneficial, some are detrimental.

WATER IS LIFE!.

All known life
depends on the presence of liquid water.

In the beginning

Life evolved
in a warm, liquid andmildly saline environment. This is still needed to provide an
environment for cell growth. Our blood is such an environment.

This
environment can be external, or for terrestrial animals has been created inside
their bodies.

Aquatic life
is now diverse and adapted to many habitats.

No water = No life.

Absence of
liquid water implies an absence of life:

Examples:

DryValleys in Antarctica,

Devils golf course.

Habitat types:

Life can
survive in the thin film of water absorbed on soil particles: Deep
microorganisms.

In the
greatest depths of the sea: Deep sea vents.

In
near-boiling hot springs: Iceland

In the driest
deserts: Kalahari.

Mucho Agua,
mucho viva.

But where
water and warmth are abundant life is prolific.

Examples:

Tropical rain
forests: i.e. the Amazon.

Estuaries.

Coral Reefs.

Aquatic Ecology:

Food chains or web?

Productivity.

Man is an integral part of nature and
natural ecosystems.

Humans and their activities are a part of the complex
web of aquatic life

Man can have a beneficial or detrimental impact.

Human Impacts of Aquatic Ecosystems

Loss of flow.

Pollution

Acid Rain

Dams

Forestry

Fishing

Loss of Flow:

Examples:

Colorado River,

Owens River,

PecosRiver.

Aquatic pollution &
life.

Water
pollution can affect aquatic life in a number of ways.

Biological
oxygen demand BOD is a measure
of the ability of an organic waste to use up dissolved oxygen (DO). Raw
sewage has a high BOD. High BOD will mean low DO and hence death
of higher organisms like fish.

Forestry & siltation:

Timber
harvesting can clog streams with sediment interfering with spawning.

In industry
recycle water.

AGRICULTURAL WATER
CONSERVATION.

Many
conservation methods available:

- Drip
irrigation,

- irrigation scheduling,

- replacement crops,

- abandonment of land to native plants.

Magnitude of Potential Agricultural
Conservation:

Agriculture can probably same 10% at no net cost and 30% without
reduction in production. Since agriculture uses 50%-90% of the water in each
state this saving is huge. Unfortunately no incentives exist in most cases.

In industry
recycle water.

AGRICULTURAL WATER
CONSERVATION.

Many
conservation methods available:

- Drip
irrigation,

- irrigation scheduling,

- replacement crops,

- abandonment of land to native plants.

Magnitude of Potential Agricultural
Conservation:

Agriculture can probably same 10% at no net cost and 30% without reduction
in production. Since agriculture uses 50%-90% of the water in each state this
saving is huge. Unfortunately no incentives exist in most cases.

Low flow toilets and shower heads, Xerascape, Reuse of greywater.

Changes in
behavior:

Take a shower with a Friend!

Industrial conservation.

Pollution
control rules have caused industry to discharge less/recycle more

Some areas
like ship channel have switched sources from groundwater to surface water.

Some
industries have sold water rights.

Some
industries have reengineered

Example:
Miller Brewing Co.

Water Conservation
Examples.

Example Mirage
hotel uses only 300 acre feet per year. Less than a mid-sized
farm.

Recycles greywater, pumps perched groundwater and treats it with
reverse osmosis. Uses xerascaping
in some areas drip irrigation in others.

Wheeling
Water

Wheeling is transferring
a water right.

Usually this
involves transfer from agriculture to urban users in the same state.

However,
sometimes urban users have paid for conservation measures and taken the water
that was saved.

Example
Imperial Irrigation District/MWD.

Why is water conservation not more
common?

Conservation methodscost $.

Water is
cheaper than dirt, so conservation is economically unattractive.

Some uses are
more economically rewarding than others.

Example:
irrigated pasture.

New sources of water:

Good quality
surface water sources are generally already used to a high degree.

Only by taking
away water from one group can additional surface water supplies be developed in
most local areas (particularly in the arid areas of the country)

Groundwater to the
rescue?

Groundwater
resources are accounting for an increasing proportion of water supply and there
are largely untapped aquifers in many areas, but contamination and overdraft
remain a threat.

However,
conservation is the cheapest new source of water.

Not out of my
basin

Inter-basin transfers are
possible, but very controversial. Examples of proposals include:

SanLuisValley, PeripheralCanal, Trans-Texas
Project, NAWAPA.

Will Lake
Superior make Minnesota
the richest state in the country? Not likely.

Other new sources:

Sea water desalinization not economically practical at present.

Saline water
treatment is marginal. Example: Clay Thorne and his Tar.

Competing users:

For many years
the agricultural (usually up-stream) water users and the urban (usually
down-stream water users) were able to reach agreement to have the Federal
Government pay for massive water development projects.

This alliance
has ended for several reasons:

Why consensus on building water projects
is over:

Environmental
activism and laws have restricted and delayed projects.

The Federal
Government is cutting back on special interest pork barrel projects.

The best
projects have been done.

There is no
extra water in many areas.

This means
that as in the cases of the Colorado Rivers in both Texas and the Southwest urban areas are
fighting with farmers over the same limited resource.

Avoidinga zero-sum game

Creative ways
to avoid a zero sum game
where peter steals from Paul to pay Peggy must be found.

Outdated laws
will have to change.

Water laws
were designed in a time when there was plenty of water and limited technology
to capture and transport water.

Also, the
behavior of water, particularly groundwater was poorly understood.

Let hydrologists not lawyers make laws
and regulations:

Things like absolute rights to percolating
water in some states and legal creations with no relationship to reality like
the bright Line doctrine in Arizona.

Now more
states are instituting comprehensive state permitting for all water rights,
that prioritizes uses based on highest
and best use and guarantees things like in-stream flows and municipal water supply.

Unfortunately,
cooperation between states and across large diverse states like Texas and California
is still largely absent.

Incentives work

Incentives to
conserve water must be developed so water rights are not a use it or loose it
proposition.

International conflicts:

Conflicts over
water in the middle east, in developed countries and
arid areas will grow.

Rivers often
form borders.

Example Danube Dam and Jordan Rivers.

Also,
pollution originating in one nation may impact downstream countries.

Dams may
require relocation of many people.

United Nations
writes many reports but has almost no power.

Global Climate change.

The climate is
changing, it always has changed, sometimes very
gradually, sometimes dramatically.

If the green-house effect is real, then the
principal early effect of warming of the atmosphere will be a change in weather
patterns, only later will massive melting of ice caps and much hotter weather be obvious.

Is global warming inevitable?

Unfortunately,
slowing the release of CO2 and methane requires a drastic change in reliance on
fossil fuels. This implies a slowing of economic growth particularly in the
developing countries now discovering the joys of air conditioning, cars, etc.

Who can force
this to happen? - effectively nobody.

So if the
greenhouse effect is happening it will get far worse before it can be reversed.

OPPORTUNITIES:

Opportunities
for further study in water related areas are limited at SHSU. There is a water
quality course in ES.

The best
hydrology courses in Texas
are in the civil engineering department at UT,A& M and geology at Baylor.

Graduate
programs in hydrology specifically exist at The University
of Arizona, University
of Colorado, University
of Washington, University
of California campuses at Davis and Santa
Barbara.

Careers.

Most people
working in surface water hydrology are civil engineers or have no actual
training in the area but gravitated to those jobs.

most people working
in the area of groundwater hydrology are geologists.

Usually, these
people have never actually had a course on hydrology. So they get OJT.

Other opportunities:

There are
entry level opportunities with the river authorities, with water conservation
districts and with environmental consulting firms. Much of this is either field
work or writing and assembling environmental impact reports (EIRs) and other reports required by the Government.

What you can do:

Examples of
conservation measures include:

40% domestic
conservation can be achieved with no real changes in lifestyle.

Final thought:

Wise use and a scientific understanding of water
resources can protect and promote not only recreation related water resources
but provide the basis for a healthy natural environment and a harvest of
benefits for man.